Chapter Seven

Bella

When Jake got to the house I dragged him up to my bedroom and handed him a pry bar which he looked at puzzled,

"What is it you want me to do Bella? Only Charlie might be a bit pissed off if he comes home and finds I've remodelled the upstairs".

I sighed and pointed to the two floorboards I'd nailed down.

"These have only been fixed recently so there not going to be anything under them Bells".

"I know, I did it Jake, now shut up and get them back up before Charlie gets home".

He pulled both floorboards up and I knelt and peered into the cavity but it was empty. Damn! I put my arm down the hole and reached around and just at the furthest I could reach I felt something with the tips of my fingers.

"Jake, there's something here. Your arms are longer, you can reach it".

He lay down on the floor and reached in. When his hand came back out it was grasping a bundle of papers. "Bingo!" he shouted.

We heard the cruiser pull up so Jake banged down the two floor boards and we scurried downstairs just in time to look innocently from the kitchen when Dad opened the door.

"Oh Hi Jake, you here for dinner again?"

Jake nodded,

"Can't get enough of Bella's cooking"

Charlie smiled,

"Well I'm going up to wash, see you in a few minutes".

We sat through dinner impatiently as Charlie had seconds, then cleaned up and went back to my room,

"Leave the door open Bells" Charlie shouted as we went up.

I groaned "Dad, we're only doing homework".

God how embarrassing!

We unrolled the papers and spread them out on the floor. There were the missing diary pages which I smoothed out and put under a heavy book to flatten. There was a piece of cloth which looked as if it had been torn from something thick and heavy. There was a newspaper cutting about my birth and a piece of heavy vellum with tiny writing on it. The last thing in the roll was I thought at first a copy of the photograph in the back of the book. It was clearer than the other one and in it were the two men and woman. They were in front of a building but it wasn't, as I'd thought, a school or college, it was a strange tower and the three weren't posing but walking away. Their faces were still blurred but at least one of the guys looked vaguely familiar. Not his face but his stance. Who were these people? And what did they have to do with Renee and I?"

Jake had to go early so he told me quickly what Billy had said. It was more or less what he'd told me. That the past should be left alone. It would only cause problems if we didn't leave things that happened in the past, in the past. After arranging to meet up at the weekend Jake left, and I went back upstairs complaining loudly about all the homework for Charlie's benefit.

I shut my door and put the papers and things on the mattress. I looked at the photograph again but it didn't jog my memory so I put it on the floor and picked up the material, it was black or very dark blue and very heavy. When I studied it more carefully I saw it had been torn off by something sharp. I put it down with the photograph and picked up the vellum, it looked old and the ink was fading so the words were very difficult to make out. I knew Charlie had a magnifying glass in the kitchen drawer, so I went down and made coffee for us both, finding it at the back of one of the drawers,

"How's the homework going Bells?"

"Fine thanks Dad, I'm going back up to do some more"

My hands trembled as I smoothed out the missing pages from the book and started to read my mothers words, the writing untidy as if she'd scribbled it,

"Why did I go? I'd promised but I knew something bad would happen to me and still I went. He told me not to tell anyone where I was going which should have warned me but I couldn't resist his voice, his eyes, his touch. I knew it was wrong, Charlie was waiting for me but I excused myself and went anyway. He was waiting for me inside the empty building which still smelled faintly of cut wood. I can't even bear to write what happened I'm so ashamed, but it changed everything and I was terrified. He threatened to come back and take it after it was born, how he knew I would be pregnant I have no idea but he was right, I was, and I had to pass the baby off as Charlie's. Even when my beautiful Bella arrived early and people counted the months he didn't care. Charlie loved her as if she really were his, I don't think it ever occurred to him that she might not be."

There was a big gap here and I think she used it to denote the passing of time,

Then He wrote to me, how he got the letter into Bella's room I never found out but I knew if it was so easy to leave a letter then it would be even easier to take my baby. We would have to leave and I couldn't explain why to Charlie, he would never understand or believe me. When we left he cried, my Charlie the man I had loved from the first time I saw him, had tears running down his cheeks as I walked away with our daughter without any explanation. I had no idea where I could go, where we would be safe but I headed for the sun, the one thing He had to hide from. Something told me that my little girl might need to know all this in the future so I am hiding these pages where she might find them one day, if he doesn't find her first. I tried to leave clues in my book, hoping she was clever enough to decode them. Why I drew the map I had no idea, but I knew the house in the forest would become important in the future. The Reservation would have been safe but how could I send Bella there, or move there with Charlie without explanation? I think Billy and Harry saw I'd been marked by the Cold Ones although they never said anything, just watched and gave Bella a charm to keep her safe and hidden. I will tell her to wear it always, my precious daughter."

Tears were dripping onto the pages as I finished reading. Renee was my mother but Charlie wasn't my father, who was the mystery man who fathered me? Who had done this terrible thing and then threatened Renee and myself afterwards?

I picked up the vellum and magnifying glass after wiping my eyes and read,

"You cannot hide from me my dear. My daughter will be brought to me when it is time. She will be beautiful and clever, another of my special creatures. Don't run, for I will find you Renee."

Who had written this? My Father, but who was he and who were the Cold Ones? Jake had said they were a myth but he was wrong. Billy and Harry knew what had happened, why didn't they help Renee? What was the charm I'd been given? I couldn't remember anything like that. As I thought, I rubbed my wrist where I'd worn the plaited leather and hair bracelet that I'd put in the coffin with Renee. Oh God, had that been it? Had I put my charm in the coffin with Renee? If I had did it mean I was in danger from my father again? I desperately needed to speak to Billy or Harry, and soon.